Politics

Stephen McCabe, the Labour whip who was in the charge of the Crewe and Nantwich campaign, has written an article for Tribune on his experience. The headlines will be grabbed by McCabe’s claim that there was no ‘toff strategy’ but more interesting is how he explains Labour’s defeat. “Nor could we stem the drift from Labour of the aspirational 25- and 35-plus age groups “Their message was simple. They were fed up with paying too much tax, too much for fuel and food, and feared for their economic future. Labour couldn’t claim to be on their side. That remains the big challenge. What will we do to win back those

Tim Montgomerie flags up how the targets culture is distorting policing priorities with arresting a child for stealing a chocolate bar treated by the police as being as important as arresting a murderer. There’s little doubt that the police are going for the low hanging fruit when it comes to meeting targets. Indeed, the only way to really measure how the police are serving the public is to make them fully accountable. If police chiefs had to stand for election and re-election it would force them to concentrate on the crimes that most bother the public.

The headlines figures in today’s YouGov poll are disastrous for Brown, the historical comparisons are humiliating—even under Michael Foot the Labour party never sank this low in the polls, but what should really worry Brown about this poll is that he and Labour now trail Cameron and the Tories on every question. Downing Street has been spinning the line that the recent election results have been so bad for Labour as they have been referendums on the government. The thinking goes that things will improve for Labour at the general election as it will be a choice between Labour and the Tories.  This new poll, though, offers no evidence for

One of the many good things about Ken Livingstone’s defeat in the London mayoral election is that Islamic extremists will no longer be feted at City Hall. One person who should never have been invited and praised by the Mayor was Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was not—as Livingstone claimed—someone “who preaches moderation and tolerance to all faiths throughout the world” but a preacher with vile views. Stephen links to a review, which I’d thoroughly recommend, of Qaradawi’s book which shows just how wrong Livingstone was about him.

Tom Bower, who wrote a rigorously researched and extremely critical biography of Gordon Brown, delivers a devastating summing up of Brown’s record to date in today’s Evening Standard: “Thatcherism and Blairism were easily defined but what exactly is Brownism? Obsessed that the state knows best, Brownism can best be described by its dubious achievements: record taxation, hyper-regulation, the biggest debts in Europe, the destruction of private pension schemes, post office closures, appalling public transport and a looming energy crisis.”

Jack Straw has emerged from his self-imposed purdah to offer his support to Gordon Brown on The World at One. Straw declared “I’m absolutely convinced that Gordon Brown is the very best person to lead the Labour party and the government through these difficulties and beyond.” He went on to say that, “Nothing that has happened has changed my view that he is the best man for the job” (which makes me think that Straw holds his colleagues in rather low regard). Just in case he hadn’t sufficiently reassured the Brownites who have been so enraged by his silence, he concluded: “There is no contest, there will be no contest